Free Thanksgiving Printable

Here's a new printable I cooked up for November.

I got all the way to the end and realized I had not created it full size, so this one is a 4×6 instead of an 8×10.  It's nice to have a little variety in picture size anyway, right?

Just click on the picture to download and print.

Did You Know That You Can…

…paint your shoes?!

A long time ago I saw that my friend Laine had painted a pair of her shoes that were getting old and scuffed.

Last week I had a chance to put that tidbit of knowledge to good use.

My black flats had gotten old and nasty, plus they somehow had gotten too small for me.  Seriously?  Your feet grow when you're this old?

Anyway, I didn't think about it much through the summer because I always wore black sandals.  The other day I got all dressed to go run errands, but before I left I realized I didn't have any shoes to match, other than the old, nasty, too-small shoes.

I did, however, have two pairs of brown flats, one of which always got scuffed on the toes no matter how much I tried to protect them.

I had some black acrylic paint on hand, and I decided that today was the day to give myself some black shoes.

I didn't have a foam brush, so I just grabbed a kitchen sponge, squirted some of the paint on it, took a deep breath, and started painting.

It worked!

My picture is horrible since it was dark when I decided to take it, and it's still too dark this morning to try again.

But let me tell you – you cannot tell that black is not the original color of these shoes!

They're leather, and when I first painted them, they looked fine, but they were kind of dull.  But the longer they sit, the more they're taking on the appearance and texture of the leather.

Can I just say that I love blogs?  And I love it when people blog about all the who-woulda-thought things that they do!

And I'm also thankful that God provided a pair of black shoes for me – for free!

Election Thoughts: What Now?

 

It almost seems surreal that President Obama will be in office for four more years, sanctioning the merciless slaughter of thousands more helpless babies, re-defining God's sacred ordinance of marriage, redistributing wealth from those who actually worked for it to those who think they deserve a handout, plunging our nation even deeper into incomprehensible debt, and stripping the citizens of this country of the very freedoms for which this country was founded.

To be honest, although I voted for him, Mitt Romney would not have been much better.  The process of our country's deterioration may have slowed a little, but our country remains in a downward spiral.

A president or a political party cannot be blamed.  Is not America ruled by the people?  Have we not chosen the succession of political leaders throughout history?

It seems that with each term, the leaders that are elected are more and more corrupt.  Why?  Certainly some have made their way into office through unjust means, but most have been elected into office by people who share the values of those leaders.  In other words, corrupt leaders are elected by corrupt people.

Additionally, I am sickened by the fact that issues such as physician-assisted suicide, gay marriage and legalized recreational marijuana were even up for consideration on the ballots of several states.

How has our nation gotten to this point and what in the world do we do now?

We as Christians need to do the same things we should have been doing all along, but have miserably dropped the ball.

1. Pray for our leaders.  Pray for their salvation.  Pray for courage for the Godly leaders who are standing boldly for righteousness in the midst of perversity.  Instead of bashing the president, pray for him.   1 Timothy 2:1-4  I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.  For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;   Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

2. Witness.  Wicked people elect wicked leaders.  The people of this country are wicked because Christians have not been following God's command to preach the gospel to every creature.  Jesus is returning soon.  How many people will be left behind to suffer judgment because you did not tell them how they could be saved?

 

3. Get our eyes on Jesus.  We Christians have been living our lives with an earthly mindset rather than an eternal mindset.  We're enamored with the things of this world, and we have allowed them to distract us from laying up treasures in heaven where moth and rust will not corrupt and where thieves do not break through and steal.  Jesus has become only part of our life instead of the center of our life.  We prove our lack of love and devotion to Him by the way we spend our time, the way we spend our money, and the things that are important to us.  We enjoy earthly pleasures, but with subtlety they've blinded us to the fact that we're living lives no different than the world.  No wonder we're not seeing any positive change in our country!  We are becoming just like the unsaved who we would not expect to make Biblical decisions.  We need to remember the old song Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face.  And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of his glory and grace.  You may be spending time today ranting on Facebook about the negative direction our country is heading, but how much time have you spent in a quiet place getting to know Jesus better?

4. Trust God.  Worrying about the future is not going to change anything.  Instead, pray.  Then purposely think on good things.  Peace comes when you leave your life in God's hands.      Philippians 4:6-8  Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.  And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.  Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. 

5. Look for our heavenly citizenship.  Although I believe we should do everything we can to be good American citizens, this is not my home.  In the midst of a description of heroes of the faith, the writer of Hebrews says this:  These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.  For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.  And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.  But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.  As hostility toward Biblical values continues to rise, remember that this is only a temporary residence.   For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Our country needs revival, but it will only come from Christians who are totally enamored with Jesus, have turned their eyes from the pleasures this world has to offer, who love people as Christ loved us, and who are not afraid to stand up for what's right because they are looking for their eternal citizenship!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5 Minute Friday: Roots

This post is being written as a part of 5 Minute Friday.

When I think of the term “roots” I think of my family line.

I have some English roots, and some Scottish roots, and some Cherokee Indian roots.

Most people believe that their roots have a lot to do with who they are.

Even though my roots may tell me about my past, they don't define who I am.

When I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior, I became a new person.  Old things passed away, and all things became new.

I have some wonderful people in that family tree of mine, and I also have some incredibly wicked people in it.

If I choose to follow Jesus and live my life for Him, is it because of the good roots that I have?

If I choose to live a life of sin, thinking only of myself, can I blame it on the fact that I have some bad apples corrupting my roots?

Neither is true.  Who I am is determined not by my roots, but by my own personal choice.

I had to realize that all have sinned, that all are enemies of God.  That includes me.  Romans 3:23  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

I had to accept the fact that there is a payment for sin, which is death and an eternity in hell.  Romans 6:23  For the wages of sin is death;  Hebrews 9:27  And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.

I had to believe that there was nothing good enough that I could do to convince God to let me into heaven.  I had to place my trust in His mercy.  Titus 3:5  Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us. 

The only way to heaven is through “the Door”, which is Jesus Christ.  He said in John 10:9  I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.  He came to earth as God in the flesh, lived a sinless life, and gave his life as a sacrifice as the payment for the sins of the whole world.  After 3 days he rose from the dead as a demonstration of his power over sin and death. 1 Corinthians 15:3-4  Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;  And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

When I trusted Him as my only hope of salvation, my roots changed immediately!

No longer was I a child of my father the devil.  I was adopted into the family of God to become one of His children!  John 1:12-13  But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:  13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

I am so thankful that my physical roots are irrelevant in eternity!  Who I am and where I came from will not make a difference in eternity because I am now one of God's children.  Because of Jesus' sacrifice for me and because of my personal choice to accept the only payment for my sin, I am assured of an eternity in Heaven with God!

Anti-Procrastination: Reaching Out

I am always trying to think of unique ways to reach out to our neighbors.  We never seem to be outside at the same time, which means that if we're going to talk to them and befriend them, it has to be a purposeful effort.

I have thought many times about baking something and taking it over to them, but I was afraid they might not want to eat it.  (You know how it is – you don't particularly want to eat something that came from a kitchen you've never seen either.  You don't know how clean it is in there, or whether the person licked the spoon and then kept stirring with it.)

I couldn't think of any other way to get over there and let them know that I cared about them, though.  I finally thought, “Who cares if they don't eat it?  I have to do something to show them I care about them and ultimately to show them the love of Christ.”

So I headed to the kitchen and baked up some pumpkin chocolate chip muffins.  The kids and I wrapped them up and walked to both of the neighbor's houses to hand deliver them.

One neighbor told me that his wife doesn't like pumpkin.  The other neighbor told me that everybody had gone to the beach for the week and might not get back in time to eat them before they went bad.

But you know what?  That really didn't bother me.  I wasn't worried about the muffins.  I just wanted them to know I care about them.

What can you do to reach others with the love of Christ?  This is one thing in which I believe we all procrastinate.  The devil wants to make sure we will always have some kind of excuse.

Stop procrastinating.  Get to baking, write a note, or just plain get over to your neighbor's house and say “Is there anything you need?  I'll be happy to help you with something or let you borrow something you need.”

Jesus is coming soon, and I don't want to be ashamed when He asks me why my neighbors never knew about Him.

If you’re just joining the Anti-Procrastination challenge, be sure to subscribe to email updates or follow me on Facebook so you won’t miss a thing!

Time, Money, Health (Part 3)

If you missed it, you can read part 1 here and part 2 here.

I'll spare you the lengthy details, but a couple years after our marriage, I discovered the world of coupons.  I'm not talking about getting a dollar off something we normally bought.  I'm talking about checking out with a whole cart full of groceries and having them owe me money at the end.  I was good at it, and it was fun.

At that point we didn't have any strict budget for groceries other than to buy only what we needed and not to spend any more money than absolutely necessary.  Before I started using coupons we basically spent the same amount every month because I would buy the same things for the same prices.  Sometimes we'd spend less if I'd managed to find meat or produce marked down because of an impending expiration date.

When I started couponing so heavily, we still didn't have a strict grocery budget.  I would just buy whatever was free or close to free with coupons and fill in the gaps with meat and vegetables.

Our pantry was filled to the brim.  My husband had to build extra shelves – twice.  We had boxes and boxes of cereal, shelves loaded with canned vegetables and soups, boxed potatoes, baking mixes, condiments – you name it and I had it.  And I had paid almost nothing for it.

I tried to be careful.  I tried to buy only the “healthiest” stuff.  We ate cereal for breakfast, but I tried to get the kinds with less sugar.  We ate granola bars for snacks as opposed to cookies.  When I got Hamburger Helper meals for free, I would get them only for the purpose of using the pasta, and I would throw away the packages of chemicalized sauces.

Occasionally the temptation to enjoy convenience crept in, and I would allow myself to bring home cookies, chips, and soda when I got them free.  But we still tried to keep the “junk food” to a minimum and only use it as a special treat.

But the fact of the matter is that processed food is…well…processed.  It doesn't matter how many claims on the box say that it's healthy or all-natural.  If it comes in a box or a can, 90% of the time it contains ingredients that were not meant for human consumption.  At best, it doesn't contain any real nutrition.  Even if harmful ingredients are not added to the food, the process by which it must be preserved and packaged to withstand a long shelf life at the store renders it nearly void of any nutrients.

Our trend of consuming free-with-coupons food continued for about 3 years.  Cooking was easy because I always had a pantry full of food from which to choose.  I could open a few boxes and cans, stir them together, and have a meal ready very quickly.  But shopping was another story.  I grew tired of having to resist the temptation to get the free cookies and chips.  I grew tired of not really knowing what my food was made out of, but eating it anyway because it was helping our grocery budget.

One week I brought home 40 (!) boxes of Pop-tarts, not because we intended to eat them, but because they had paid me to buy them, and I was using the overage to get other things for which there are no coupons like milk, meat, and vegetables.

I should have immediately gotten rid of them, but I stuck them in the pantry to deal with them later.  (You know all about my propensity to do that if you've been reading here for any length of time!)

Eventually we opened some of them up when we were hungry and needed something in a hurry.

A couple months later I went into the pantry to find that all 40 boxes of the Pop-tarts were GONE!  In a couple months time, we had eaten 40 boxes of Pop-tarts.  I was disgusted.

I knew something had to change…

I’ll be sharing the next step in our journey in the next post in this series.  Be sure to subscribe to email updates or follow me on Facebook so you won’t miss it!